Welcome to our monthly roundup of the best links on the internet about engineering, physics, and computer modeling! This month’s edition is full of interesting videos, articles, and resources to keep you up to date with the world of computer-assisted engineering and discrete elements methods.
Simulating the Real World
- Continuous tableting process utilizes powder formulas that flow through feeders and blenders to create a mixture. Then, a compressor turns the mixture into solid tablets. This process can be modeled utilizing DEM software, and Coupi is currently working on a similar simulation.
- Here’s another fun physics thought experiment, why can’t you use moonlight to start a fire?
Practical Applications
- Proppants are granular materials made of uniform particles and come in different types such as sand, resin-coated sand, or even ceramic. These are mixed with fracturing fluid during the hydraulic fracturing process in order to hold open fractures made in the ground.
- Engineers from Carnegie Mellon University have been developing a class of stretchable polymer composites that could be used in soft robotics, self-healing electronics, and medical devices.
Physics Lesson
- Did you know that a new phase of matter was discovered this year? It is both a solid and a liquid at the same time.
News from Coupi
- Speaking of regolith, did you know that Coupi helped model boulder retrieval forces from an asteroid? Learn more about how we were able to model it with our DEM software.